Wireless communication may follow the well-known seven layer open system interconnection (OSI) model, which is a conceptual model for standardizing telecommunication systems across various infrastructures and operating technologies, to provide interoperability. The seven layers include: a physical layer (layer 1) which defines electrical and physical specifications for underlying data connections and provides a relationship between hardware and a physical transmission medium; a data link layer (layer 2), which provides node to node data transfer between two connected nodes in the system, and may also be used for error correction in the physical layer; a network layer (layer 3), which provides a functional and procedural means for transferring data sequences (e.g., of variable length) between the nodes which form a network; a transport layer (layer 4), which provides means for transporting the data sequences from a source to a destination across one or more networks in the underlying layer; a session layer (layer 5) which provides controls or connections e.g., full-duplex, half-duplex, etc., between different processors; a presentation layer (layer 6) for establishing communication context between different applications or entities which may use different semantics of mappings between them; and an application layer (layer 7) which is closest to an end user, and provides an interface to a user or software.
Specifically, for wireless communication technologies such as Bluetooth, BLE, etc., the data link layer (layer 2) or simply, the “link layer” as well as the applications layer (layer 7) may be configured for enabling peer-to-peer wireless communication between two compatible wireless devices. Without loss of generality, a first wireless device of the two wireless devices may be considered as a local device while a second wireless device of the two wireless devices may be considered as a remote device. In some cases, the local device may wish to authenticate the remote device as a trusted device before communicating with the remote device, or more specifically, before establishing proprietary or secure communication with the remote device. For example, the remote device may be a trusted remote device if the remote device and the local device share one or more predetermined root keys associated with one or more subsystems (e.g., a bootloader, firmware, digital signal processor (DSP)). The local and remote devices may share root keys if they have a common manufacturer, are designed under a common or shared license, share proprietary hardware, etc. The local device and remote device may be in a position to exchange proprietary information which may relate to or affect their underlying proprietary hardware, software, or a combination thereof, if a trust is established between them.
However, the wireless communication established and maintained by the link layer and the applications layers may not be secure enough to share proprietary information over the air (OTA) by means of existing wireless communication. This is because the applications layer, for example, may run any third-party software used in the discovery and exchange of information used in establishing and maintaining a Bluetooth communication between the local and remote devices, and using the existing Bluetooth communication to send or receive proprietary information may expose the underlying physical layer or hardware to security threats.
Therefore, there is a need in the field of peer-to-peer wireless communications for discovering trusted remote devices and enabling trusted communication between trusted remote devices.